Hollywood legend and 'Notebook' star Gena Rowlands dies at 94

Transcript

00:00I'm Ali. Contemporary audiences would know her best as the older Ali in the big-screen love story, The Notebook.

00:11It was us.

00:13It was us.

00:15But long before, Jenna Rollins carved her own path in Hollywood. The 94-year-old actress passed away Wednesday afternoon,

00:23just months after her son, Notebook director Nick Cassavetes,

00:27revealed she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's five years earlier. Known for her on-screen

00:33collaborations with her late husband, writer and director, John Cassavetes,

00:37Rollins broke out in her role as Mabel Longhetti in the

00:411974 film, A Woman Under the Influence.

00:44I had the hiccups a little while ago, but I got rid of them.

00:46A performance that earned her the first of two Best Actress Oscar

00:50nominations. Honored multiple times for her work, including nine Emmy nominations with four wins,

00:56she received an honorary Oscar in

00:592015. Tall and shiny and gold.

01:03Very handsome. Her mother was actress Lady Rollins. The two appeared on screen together in three Cassavetes films.

01:11She filmed ten movies with her first husband and later

01:15collaborated with her son on many projects like The Notebook.

01:19It was a particularly difficult role for Rollins to take on. In an interview with O!

01:24Magazine just as the movie was released,

01:27she shared that her mother had Alzheimer's and said, if her son Nick hadn't directed the film,

01:33I don't think I would have gone for it. It's just too hard. It was a tough, but wonderful movie.

01:39What's gonna happen?

01:41When I can't remember anything anymore?

01:43What will you do?

01:45I'll be here. I'll never leave you.

01:47What will you do?

01:50I'll be here. I'll never leave you.

01:52Her latest feature film credits in

01:562014, the same year she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A storied career spanning seven decades.

02:04I always, always

02:05wanted to be an actress. I love movies because I love the variety of how many lives you could lead.

02:14And

02:15what an incredible life she led. Rollins is survived by her husband Robert Forrest, three children and a host of

02:23grandchildren. And she and her first husband, John Cassavetes, were essentially the pioneers of the American

02:31independent film movement. They would do typical Hollywood movies and then take the money they earned on those and

02:37shoot their own movies, like A Woman Under the Influence. And they shot a lot of their movies in their own house.

02:43She said her kids grew up and they'd come out of the bedroom, there'd be a cable across the floor.

02:48They thought that's just how everybody lived. That's love of the art right there. It really was.

02:54That was beautiful.

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